NEQUAM
'''NEQUAM''' '''INTRODUCTION''' Nequam is my most well known creation. Nequam itself, and pretty much all of its contents, is just a massive metaphor, a piece of historical satire created so I can make things based off real history whilst making fun of it at the same time. That's why all the general era plots and stretches of time in Nequamian history generally match up to those in real world history. '''THE MASTER RACES''' Instead of humans, there are three 'master races' who run Nequam in the same way that humans might. These races are the Vulps, the Cats, and the Swine. '''VULPS:''' * The term 'vulp' is derived from the latin 'vulpes', referring to foxes or foxlike creatures, and yet vulps themselves are nothing like foxes at all in terms of appearance or instinct. They more closely resemble hairless dogs or sighthound-type creatures, and their internal systems and many of their instincts are almost identical to those of humans. * This has earned them the common nickname/term of referral in some texts as 'mandogs'. * They, much like people, vary in sizes. The smallest a vulp can generally be without becoming abnormal is perhaps a spaniel, and the largest can be about the size of a great dane. However, what is considered the average size of the vulp varies from country to country, as is likewise for the cats and the pigs. * Vulps have incredibly human minds. They, along with the cats and the pigs, make up the civilised population. They have built their cities and structured their culture and their beliefs, they have destroyed the ecosystems and have done so with pride. * By default vulps are hairless, or extremely close to it, and it is generally rare for a vulp to have long hair unless it is a crossbreed with some other type of dog. * All vulps have remarkably human skin. * Vulps have dignity like humans, and on almost all cases they will wear clothes, though it is slightly more tolerable in their books to be naked than it is in ours. * Vulps have average human sight, taste and hearing, yet a rather poor sense of smell. * Tails are seen as unwholesome, unnecessary and embarrassingly feral appendages which are at best kept out of clear vision. * It is true that vulps resemble canines in both appearance and general attribution, but there is no greater and more heinous insult than to call a vulp a 'dog'. It is not only offensive in the rude sense, saying it will actually trigger some deep seeded shudder within both the one addressed and all the other vulps present. Saying it further back in history would have been enough to get one thrown in prison or sentenced to death. * However, there are many words in the general vocabulary of vulps that do refer to dogs, though they are somehow rather unaware, for instance, 'cur' being a slang term of referral, 'rover' being a slang term for a police officer, and 'whelp' being an affectionate term for friends. '''CATS:''' * They are more the pacifists and the filler population than the vulps, who are typically the administrators and the propaganda masters. * The cats are more of a peaceful and less forward folk, at least stereotypically. * They tend to be nimbler on their feet and better at mathematics, and whilst vulps are not bulky, they tend to be smaller than most vulps. * They have no esteemed rivalry with any other race, unlike the vulps and the pigs, who have an esteemed and slightly stereotypical rivalry with each other. * Cats are also the best musicians and would be the best poets too were it not for the pigs, who are exceptional at wordplay. * There are 'cat clubs' that exist in the largest cities, that began appearing in their developed forms at the beginning of the 1800s, which have always been rather ahead of their time, and involve music and serve as sorts of speakeasies. * Cats have the best vision of the three great races, and are the most flexible in body. * They speak in the same accents as do everybody, under the same conditions, but all cats have slightly hissing undertones to their voices. * Cats are regarded as just under vulps in terms of social hierarchy, although some consider them inferior. * It was a cat who first created communism in Nequam, and thus it is cats who make up the majority of the renowned communists worldwide, perhaps as they are rather weak in body and immune system and so depend more upon each other to survive. '''SWINE/PIGS:''' * They are regarded generally with a degree of contempt by the vulps, as there has been a constant underlying rivalry between them for the entirety of their history. * Stereotypically, pigs are very strong minded, and make the best engineers, scientists, architects, salesmen, businessmen and warlords. * They have developed the best technologies and the best poetry, and the first dictionary was written by a pig (pigs are also extremely gifted with words and wordplay, which explains why vulps are not aware that they use so many dog-related words in their vocabulary). * Pigs are prejudiced against in general society. There are supposedly many reasons for this, one of which being that as society is generally run by vulps, the rivalry between them and the pigs tends to leak through into most things, sometimes more subtly than others. * Another reason is the reputation of pigs due to them themselves; they are unattractive, prone to bloating, gout and other ailments, they commonly sweat in excess, are lacking in natural fitness and stamina, and are attributed, though rather unfairly, with bad attitude and complaining. * However, though through propaganda this is hidden to the general public, without the swine the world would not work properly. They are not bad people at all. They are not the natural enemy. They are just forced to be seen as such, and so many powerful pigs have used their power for negative use; though these circumstances are highlighted more than those in which the same has occurred with vulps or felis. '''CANES:''' * There are also the canes, which are not regarded as a master race. * They live in society like the master races, but are generally categorised under the same branch as cats because they are just filler population mostly. * 'Cane' is derived from 'canine', because canes are just dogs as we know them. There are hundreds of breeds, just like in our world. '''HISTORY''' Now for some Nequamian history! = '''NOIRES''' The history of Nequam is very strange, much stranger than our history, primarily because of the Darkness periods which split everything up. These Darkness periods are called Noires. At the end of each era in Nequam (how an era's length is determined is unknown), there comes a great Noire through which no being survives, yet which no being dies because of; they are merely periods in which nothing exists, and it is unknown how long they last. Between each era, in an irregular cycle, a Noire will cut off that era, and then that Noire's eventual clearing will give way to a new one. No being but the rabbits can remember past the Noires, or even that there was a Noire. Nobody but the rabbits even know that there are such things as Noires. There is a strange mental block in all beings but the rabbits that prevents remembrance. Almost always, sentient beings will have a false idea set in their head of what their family/bloodline's history was, even though there is only proof of these histories to a certain extent before things seem to just ''stop''. '''TIMELINE''' =